


Nowhere Near It

by HashtagPomegranate



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Best Friends, Fix-It, Friendship, Gen, Post-Canon, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-28
Updated: 2019-04-28
Packaged: 2020-02-08 15:02:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,287
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18625645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HashtagPomegranate/pseuds/HashtagPomegranate
Summary: MAJOR ENDGAME SPOILERS: Seriously, please don't read this if you haven't seen the movie yet.Steve disappears on the pad, five second pass, then ten, the he rematerializes.





	Nowhere Near It

**Author's Note:**

> I saw Endgame last night and it took me a little bit of time to realize why a certain scene left a bad taste.
> 
> AGAIN, IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN ENDGAME, PLEASE DON'T READ THIS IF YOU'RE TRYING TO AVOID SPOILERS. I really don't want someone to accidentally realize something.
> 
> But I figured out what I wanted, and I wrote it. I'd love to hear if you had an opinion on this, or another idea of what could have happened.

The air shimmered and Steve disappeared. Bucky stood there with a bittersweet smile, Sam stood patiently waiting, and the Hulk was counting down, “three, two, one.” He pressed the button and nothing seemed to happen. The movements weren’t frantic yet, as he toggled a few more switches, “That’s odd,” he said, pressing a few more buttons.

He didn’t even notice that the sensors had adjusted and Steve had reappeared until Steve said, “Miss me?”

“Every second, man.” Sam said smiling, walking forward, and clapping him on the shoulder.

 

Later that day, Steve, Bucky, and Sam were sitting in the still-demolished kitchen of the compound drinking one of Thor’s leftover beers. Thor had left to go an see to Asgard, it had been a relief to see the light come back into the gods eyes.

“Gotta admit, little surprised you came back.” Bucky said finally, the concern having sat at the back of his head all day. He had thought, when the Hulk was having some trouble, that Steve might have decided to stay in the past, to forget the pain this future had brought.

“Not a chance.” Steve said, “I don’t think I told you, but when Stark,” there was a hint of a pause after the name, loss still fresh enough to bring a world of regret back, “and I went to get the Tesseract, I saw Peggy.”

The room was silent after Sam’s sharp inhalation. They all knew the story, in some cases had lived it, that Peggy was the great love of Steve’s life.

“And,” Sam prompted.

“She looked so happy.” Steve said, taking a sip of his beer, her stared at the can after, trying to process his thoughts. “I had heard about how she got married, and had children, lived a great life. And… I got to see a hint of it.” A weight seemed to lift from his shoulders. “I saw her at SHIELD and she was in her element.” He thought about it again, the way her energy had seemed to fill up the room she had been in, the way she had reviewed the paperwork, the tone of voice he could hear through the window.

“I can always dream of the future we would have had together, but taking what she ended up having, even if it was a different timeline, wouldn’t have been right. I’m never going to be what I was when I went in the ice. But I can still have a future.”

He looked at Sam and Bucky. They had both seemed relieve to see him return, and he wanted to let them know that he wouldn’t abandon them.

“I have another thing I wanted to speak to you about.” Steve said, rolling the can between his hands before setting it down. Having a prop, something to keep his hands busy, was just a distraction. He pulled something else out from under the table.

The shield did not look its best. It had been hacked away and was little more than half a disc, the paint having been scratched and marred in the battler. “I’ve talked to Shuri, and it sounds like she can fix this, but I’m not the one who should be carrying it anymore.”

That seemed to shock both men, “Steve…” Bucky said cautiously.

“What are you talking about?” Sam said, incredulously.

Steve turned to Sam, “The Avengers are always going to need a leader, I think it’s your turn.”

Sam turned to Bucky, and then back to Steve. “I understand you might not want to keep the shield but shouldn’t,” he shrugged towards Bucky.

Bucky took knocked back the rest of his drink and placed the empty can on the countertop, taking the moment to gather his thoughts. “I wouldn’t want it. At some point, maybe, but I think there’s still too many people who know the name Winter Soldier who wouldn’t want to trust the man behind it. He’s right, you’d make a good leader, sparrow.”

“It’s falcon.”

“Sure thing Hawkeye.”

“There’s already another damn Hawkeye and you know it.”

Steve leaned back in his chair, watching his two friends’ bicker, enjoying the relative peace. The world was slowly putting itself back in order.

Their faux-argument finally wore down.

“So, what exactly are you going to be doing?” Sam asked, finally getting around to the first question that popped into his head when Steve mentioned giving up the shield.

“Probably gonna run around and get into fights, just like the good old days.” Bucky snorted at that answer, before pushing himself up to go grab another beer. He pointed at Steve and Sam, one at a time, asking if they wanted another as well.

Their answers didn’t really matter, he was going to bring back a full round regardless. If he had learned anything, it was that people seemed to be at their weakest when they had nothing in their hands. Having something to fiddle with, to move and manipulate gave people a sense of purpose. And what was this conversation if not vulnerable.

“I’m going to teach.” Steve said, just loudly enough that Bucky could still hear him.

“What are you going to teach, ‘how to be a punk 101?’”

Sam looked at Bucky, reaching out a hand for one of the beers, “Convincing people to commit treason through raw charisma?”

“How to run up a tank in 6 easy steps.”

“A leader’s guide to magic users; how not to piss them off”

“Beat up your best friend to undo their brainwashing”

Sam nodded, “More like, ‘get beat up by your best friend to undo their brainwashing.’”

Bucky threw his head back, laughing. “Oh, Steve, you really call this jerk your friend? Think he’s serious enough to pull off the mantle of ‘Captain America?’”

Steve smiled slyly and pulled the last beer over to him, popping it open in a smooth movement. “Like I was serious enough to pull off the mantle.”

“You mighta liked a wisecrack back in the day, but you were straight serious ‘bout justice.”

“Still gonna help people. We have half the planet’s population appearing five years after they disappeared.” That silenced the jovial mood immediately, “I have experience waking up in a world years after the fact. There’s going to be some changes they’re going to have to deal with. Relationships that will have moved on, jobs, friends, infrastructure. The world has changed. I think I can help.”

There was silence after this proclamation. “That’s, that’s a really good idea.” Sam was ever the counselor. He had worked with Vets coming home from war. Change knocked people off balance, even he was a little unsure of his place outside of the Avengers, five years had passed with the blink of an eye. At times he didn’t understand this older, wearier Steve. “Wish I had thought of that.”

“Too late, you’re Captain America now. No returns.” Steve joked, face still in Bucky’s direction. Knowing he had Sam’s approval went a long way towards helping him believe in himself, but Bucky’s would be the icing on the cake. He may have helped with the sessions dealing with the aftermath of the snap, but this would be on entirely different scale.

Bucky sniffed, and cleared his throat, “That’s, that’s a good idea Steve.” His mind was following his re-introduction to society. He had even lived for bits and pieces of the 70 years he had lost, and yet still had needed help pulling everything together. “You gonna want help?”

Steve choked out a laugh, he hadn’t realized how nervous he had been until that offer, “You always said you’d be with me to the end of the line. We aren’t there yet are we.”

“Nowhere near it.”


End file.
